By now, my project was in full swing. My sim neighborhoods had people from all walks of life. I had a few eccentric characters, a few very conventional, conservative folks, and a broad range of positions across the economic ladder. Some were very rich; some were very poor. Most were just “the middling sort.”
But my fictional world of the sims still didn’t accurately reflect the real world. Basically, all my sims were good. Oh, I had sims with that “evil trait” EA provides for us, but we all know that true evil is more than simply insulting folks or starting fights. It was time for me — and my sims — to look at the darker side of life.
Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?
Maybe you’ve heard those words before. They come directly from a radio program that first appeared in the 1930s and went on to become an American icon. If you want to know more, check out The Shadow for an interesting bit of history, or click here to hear the chilling words of The Shadow as portrayed by Frank Readick, Jr.
I kept hearing that voice in my head as I contemplated the townies in my sim bin. Surely there would be a few real stinkers in there, a few bad apples that could threaten the whole bunch. Oh, yes. I just had to find them.
I toyed with the idea of doing a bit of demographic research to determine what percent of the American population become criminals, but “illegal activity” covers a lot of ground, and I reasoned that it might be difficult to find exactly what I was looking for. So, I made my own sim demographics, arbitrarily choosing my own percentage. No, that’s not quite true. What I did was to choose an arbitrary number — 13 — which resulted in a percentage. To save you from doing the math, it works out to 8% of my population.
But that’s just for the more-or-less average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill criminal. The world has not only common criminals, but sexual predators, too. And then there are the truly dangerous men and women of the world — the killers. Yep. Oasis Springs, Willow Creek, and my other neighborhoods were about to be plunged into a crime wave as I found these despicable guys and gals and unleashed them upon my unsuspecting sims.
- First, I marked every 13th townie as “Criminal”
- Second, I marked every 31st townie as “Sexual Offender”
- Third, I marked every 44th townie as “Killer”
All those number are arbitrary ones. Thirteen sounded like a good, chilling number for criminals. I turned it around to arrive at my sexual offender factor, and as you can easily see, I added those two numbers together to come up with a designation for true evil.
But wait! There’s more.
There are many different types of criminals, many different sexual crimes, and many different ways in which murders are committed. Once again, I drew inspiration from Writer’s Guide to Character Traits. Looking to create a criminal? Take a look at this list:
| CRIMINAL BEHAVIORS |
|
|
| 1 |
Arsonist |
| 2 |
Confidence Specialist |
| 3 |
Counterfeiter or Forger |
| 4 |
Delinquent Youth |
| 5 |
Domestic Abuser |
| 6 |
Habitual Petty Criminal |
| 7 |
Impostor/Pretender |
| 8 |
Kleptomaniac |
| 9 |
Late-Blooming Criminal |
| 10 |
Looter |
| 11 |
Occasional Offender |
| 12 |
Ordinary Career Criminal |
| 13 |
Professional Career Criminal |
| 14 |
Pyschopath |
| 15 |
Skyjacker |
| 16 |
Stalker |
| 17 |
Violent Criminal |
| 18 |
White-Collar Criminal |
I decided to skip over the “skyjackers” since that didn’t seem too useful for my game. Using the number generator at Random.org I assigned a “criminal type” to my sim criminals.
It proved interesting. As I looked at the information I’d compiled on my spreadsheet, my imagination kicked into gear. Consider the possible stories for Corinne Edwards based on her profile:
Corrine Edwards
Single
Adventurer
Age 27
Bank Teller
Springdale Bank
Criminal — Occasional Offender
An “occasional offender” working as a bank teller? Hmmm. A single young woman who yearns to live a life of adventure? She’s probably “dipping into the till” now and then, stashing a bit of cash for all those worldly adventures she can’t afford.
Things got even more interesting as I looked at the different types of sexual offenders.
| SEX OFFENDERS |
|
|
| 1 |
Exhibitionist |
| 2 |
Sexual Abuser |
| 3 |
Sexual Addict |
| 4 |
Pedophile |
| 5 |
Pornographer |
| 6 |
Rapist |
As I randomly assigned sexual offense “types” for my Townie Project, I came across this fellow:
Allen Jensen
Married
Eccentric
Age 48
Contractor
Jensen Painting Company
Sexual Abuser
Oh, my! I looked at his family in the bin. His lovely wife and his two beautiful, blonde-haired teen daughters. I truly saw the evil. I thought especially of his oldest daughter, Sofia, and how skittish she’s been around boys, and I knew I’d uncovered a deep, dark secret in her life.
And what about the killers?
More to come!
The Townie Project – Part 6: Who Killed Titania McTeague?
By the way, let me quickly fill you in on a few interesting things about Corrine Edwards and Allen Jensen. As my Townie Project has continued, a lot has happened.
- Corrine has now married Dr. Bennett London, her psychologist, and they’re expecting their first child.
- Allen Jensen’s wife finally left him after he got caught fooling around with a young student at Dunbar State University. She moved out, the student moved in, and little Jacqueline Jensen recently came into the world.
- Sofia Jensen married a wonderful, loving young man but was devastated to learn that she’ll never be able to have babies as a result of the sexual abuse she suffered throughout her childhood. She’s now attending regular sessions with one of Dr. Bennett’s therapy groups.
Happy Simming!
What do YOU think of Jonathan’s advice?
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